As OC Transpo buses switched to their spring schedules on Sunday, university and college students finishing up their last week of winter term will have to contend with some reduced service.
Rory Haley, a journalism student at Algonquin College, has taken the 88 to commute to school throughout the year. With a few exams left this week before Algonquin’s official end of term on April 25, she’ll still need to rely on it to get onto campus.
However, as of April 19, the weekday frequency of the 88 was reduced from a bus every 10 minutes to every 15 minutes. Haley said the extra wait time means her multi-transfer, one-hour-long commute may be even longer.
“Taking the 88 from the hours of noon until 4 p.m. is a nightmare because the service is already so far apart,” Haley said. “I feel like (reducing service is) just gonna further exaggerate the problem for me and others, because I know tons of people are frustrated with the (route) as well.”
OC Transpo buses go through four regular schedule changes a year — spring, summer, fall and winter. These adjustments are supposed to make the transit system match the needs of commuters, especially as the flow of students fluctuates throughout the year.
Last year, OC Transpo rolled out its planned spring schedule changes alongside its service overhaul called New Ways to Bus on April 27, which fell after the end of the term for most Ottawa area post-secondary schools.
But this year, these spring changes came earlier than the end of term for all major Ottawa colleges and universities.
Routes 7, 25, 47, 68, and 75 will also have their schedules adjusted. All these routes will see their service reduced by some degree — except for route 47, which will have two new times added to support Amazon shifts.
The spring service changes also included better alignment of certain buses with the start and end times of schools and detours for construction.
In a memo to council on April 16, OC Transpo General Manager Rick Leary wrote that those routes would be less frequent on weekdays “due to lower seasonal ridership levels as the winter term ends at postsecondary institutions.”
In an emailed response, the city pointed to a webpage explaining its service changes, in which it noted that service changes came after months of planning. The city also said they were based on many factors, including “major events, operating conditions and feedback.”
The city did not provide further comment about the service change coming before the end of the term.
Adam Bethune, another Algonquin student, said he’d noticed the 88 was frequently late, and so he started his commute earlier back in January to give himself extra time to get to campus.
“From past terms, I was always getting to class really close to when it would start, or there’s a chance that I would be late because the bus wouldn’t come on time,” he said.
Because he’d already made the switch, he doesn’t think the changes will affect his travel time much for his last two exams.
Route 25, which stretches from Waterbridge to Millennium, dropped from a 15-minute service frequency to 30 minutes during midday service and for the westbound direction during the morning peak period.
The bus route is popular for students at La Cité college, which will wrap up its winter term on April 26.
Gina Tshibumbu Mujinga is one of these students. Route 25 is her final bus after a lengthy journey from Gatineau.
“Sometimes, when I arrive at Blair and I have to wait for the 25 to bring me (to La Cité), sometimes it’s like one hour,” Tshibumbu Mujinga said. “That’s why I always leave the house, like, three hours (before).”
Tshibumbu Mujinga said there are usually gaps in between her transfers, which she thinks will be worsened with the service frequency changes.
Many of the students who attend the secondary and elementary schools in La Cité’s surrounding area also take the 25.
Anika Roy, 16, is a student at Collège catholique Samuel-Genest, and she says that it feels “dangerous” to reduce the service for the 25, which is already often packed.
“No one wants to be late. No one wants to miss the bus,” she said. “A lot of people come rushing to the doors, where sometimes people start pushing each other.”
Roy said she doesn’t think the end of La Cité’s winter term will stop the overcrowding on route 25.
